#074 – Why crabs though?

#074 – Why crabs though?

‘Variety dungeoneer’ Side quest accepted!

Main objective:

Conquer at least one Intra and one Ether-based dungeon.

Side objectives:

Complete the Intra-based dungeon in one attempt.

Complete the Ether-based dungeon without any monsters respawning.

Rewards - 4SP

Penalty for failure - 6SP debt

‘Lost and found’ Side quest accepted!

Main objective:

Get your items back from the dungeon.

Side objectives:

Complete the dungeon in one attempt.

Rewards - 2SP

Penalty for failure - 4SP debt

I hummed as I stared at the newly accepted quests.

“As we thought... I need to beat the city dungeon to get my stuff back... But what is that about monsters respawning...? I guess each of the dungeon types has its own mechanics, huh?”

After some discussion with chat, we’d come to the conclusion that while the city and the office building were obviously Intra-based dungeons – based on the whole emotion-flood thing – the crystal crater and the spaceship were likely Ether-based dungeons, since they obviously had something very physical happen at them... and also by the process of elimination.

And since I was planning on conquering both the crystal crater and the city dungeons, and since I’d been offered those two quests again this morning, I thought I might as well accept them.

I had just ‘started’ the stream for the day after my breakfast, a therapy session with Jane, and some light exercise. A lot of people in chat theorized that exercising actually increased my Ether reserves, and while I had no way to easily prove or disprove it since it was hard to tell, I still did it just because... you know, exercising is kinda important in general. But especially if I planned on fighting monsters all day.

Speaking of which, I still felt nervous about trying to conquer another dungeon after that disaster with the city one. I was going to take some precautions this time. I didn’t want to rush into danger like an idiot again.

“Anyone have any better ideas than to melt sand into glass...?” I asked as I made my way to the river both to refresh myself and to gather some water.

Eclipsoon: might not help much anyway

Eclipsoon: glass is brittle

“Yeah, that’s the problem, isn’t it?” I grouched.

How did one counter a Gorgon gaze without having to lug around a fragile object? The best answer we had right now was for me to use hydrokinesis and create a screen in front of myself using water, in just the right way that it reflected light.

Which, as I found out when I’d tried it, was incredibly difficult with my current hydrokinesis skills.

“...This is not gonna work, chat.”

Not only did it take basically all of my main thought process’ attention to maintain it, but I couldn’t even properly keep it stable. The droplets kept moving around and creating holes in my water shield.

Of course, I didn’t know for sure whether I would have to deal with the classic Gorgon gaze in that dungeon – or its sapphire edition, I guess– but I wasn’t going to leave anything to chance, considering that it could very well end up with me instantly dead, turned into sapphire.

“Hmm, yeah, I guess my best counter would be to not look into their eyes, huh...? I don’t like that, though. It’s too risky.”

Part of me thought I was being too paranoid, since this was a fairly low-level dungeon... but the water park had also been a low-level dungeon and I’d had to deal with a freaking cyber shark in a sextuple mirror room.

So, no. Better to be overprepared than underprepared.

JamieWasTaken3: you can use ur turtle scout

JamieWasTaken3: hide and send him forwrad

I hummed and frowned.

“I guess I could use Gargles that way, yeah... but probably not for long. I don’t have that much more Intra, and I don’t want to run out again.”

But to be honest, I didn’t have a better idea at the moment. Even with all the random stuff I’d gotten from the dungeons, I still had nothing resembling a shield, much less a mirror shield. Obviously, I could make a crappy shield out of wood if I wanted to, but frankly speaking, that was a lot of effort for something that might break in one hit anyway.

“...Well, I guess I’ll just have to take it slow then,” I finally said.

After all, the Variety dungeoneer quest gave me a full sixty days and Lost and found gave me ten. And even then, it wouldn’t be the end of the world even if I failed those quests.

After all, the extra skill points were cool, but the number one priority was to stay alive.

With that in mind, I walked back to the dungeon, pulled out my gun in my left hand, and my frying pan in my right – yeah, laugh it up, jerks – and plopped down Mr. Gargles. I concentrated on our connection and made him enter the dungeon first.

Strangely enough, I still felt the chill-down-my-spine sensation second hand when he stepped over the boundary.

“...Okay, that’s weird. Apparently, Mr. Gargles can feel entering a dungeon too,” I mumbled as I stepped in after him.

JamieWasTaken3: hes a real boi!

“The realest of boys,” I confirmed with a sage nod even as I slowly advanced, feeling the gleaming crystal under my feet.

“Chat, look! A mimic!” I yelled and pointed at the cyan-blue crystalline chest.

Jeofffff: nana pls

Jeofffff: just appraise it

I did so.

D-rank dungeon chest

A loot chest containing random dungeon loot.

D-rank. Just as I’d thought...

I hummed and rubbed my chin in an exaggerated way.

“Smart mimic. It can even trick my Appraisal.”

Jeofffff: why are we doing this again

“But damn, how do I even get to it to smack it? I can’t walk on lava!”

I had some heat resistance from the blessing and my clothes, but I wasn’t very eager to test whether it was enough to withstand that.

Chat immediately came up with several solutions. Some maybe viable, some straight up suicidal.

“...Uh, no Brian. I don’t think I can use Aquaport when in lava. And anyway, submerging myself in lava would probably maybe kinda sorta kill me, you know? Gonna shelve that plan, I think.” I shook my head. “Eh, shooting my water gun into the lava and hopping on the resulting obsidian sounds cool, but I don’t think that’s gonna work either. You know, this world doesn’t actually have video game physics, Herald.”

There were a couple more insane plans like these, but I couldn’t answer all of them out loud if I didn’t want to be standing here all day, so I merely had my forks send them DMs and focused on potentially viable plans.

“Lemee look around if there’s an opening in the overhang...”

I approached the structure from the safe side, running into one more crab on the way, and searched for a good few minutes. Unfortunately, there were no openings. I could theoretically climb up and get on top of the overhang, but a drop from up there would land me straight into the lava pool. In theory, I could maybe try some acrobatic swing maneuver to land at the small island under the overhang where the chest was but... if I missed, I was as good as dead.

I sighed.

“Well, I guess I’ll try Trixie’s plan and hope it works.”

Said plan involved me finding a spot from which I could shoot the chest with my water gun and launch it to the other side of the lava lake without snagging on the overhang. There was a spot like that, but it would be pretty tight and the chest might still land in the lava... assuming the water gun had enough oomph to actually launch the chest and the chest wasn’t bolted to the ground.

This might also break whatever was inside the chest but... I honestly didn’t have any better plans that didn’t involve recklessly jumping into danger again.

“I feel like a sniper, chat. Enemy spotted and all that.” I snickered as I lay down and took aim.. “Take this, you filthy mimic!”

I fired.

The shot smacked into the chest with a bang and sent it tumbling through the air... straight into the pool of lava.

It kerplunked into it and disappeared under the surface.

...

I stared at the lava lake for a moment while people cried their woes in the chat, telling me I should have done this or that instead, telling to go fish out the chest, telling me–

“...Mission success,” I announced with a satisfied nod. “Mimic eliminated. No need to worry, chat. I have everything under control.”

Jeofffff: bruh

Jeofffff: don’t pretend you planned that

I ignored Jeoff and my own disappointment at losing the chest and got up again.

“Well, anyway. This dungeon isn’t so bad so far... I’m not even sure if the crabs do actually have Gorgon gaze or whatever. I guess if this was the first dungeon I entered, I might have some trouble with it, but... Eh. Not anymore than the water park.”

A second after I said all of that, I realized that I was probably tempting fate and whatever I found next would make me regret my words.

I shook my head to dismiss the thoughts.

“Let’s keep going then.”